“So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, not did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the LORD had put them into a deep sleep.”
~ 1 Samuel 26:12
Hi James and Ellen,
In what ways has God protected you from getting seriously hurt or even being killed? Has there been a time when you know that you would have been seriously harmed or even killed if the life threatening moment had taken place seconds earlier or seconds later? Has there been a time when you were injured but the injury was not as serious as it could have been? While working in a manufacturing business – that is located in Wilmington, Delaware, that makes wire mesh rolls that are used when pouring concrete for highways, your grandpaa – while he was getting a spool of wire ready to be one of the wires that make up a roll of wire mesh, had a dirty, oily wire that he had just cut recoil up and pierce your grandpaa’s upper lip – right under his nose, going inside your grandpaa mouth and along your grandpaa’s top gum line. Your grandpaa knows that the wire that was uncoiling could just as easily have struck him in one of his eyes or his throat or . . . one afternoon as your grandpaa was going around Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s first circle on his gray 125 Yamaha street bike, your grandpaa right after he turned in front of a bus that he had just passed looked in his motorcycle’s mirror and saw a taxi heading right at him to go up the street that your grandpaa was passing. Your grandpaa’s immediate reaction was to turn his motorcycle’s handlebars like your dad would turn the steering wheel of his car. Even though your grandpaa ended up with a bone chip in his left elbow and having the muscles torn loose from the back of the elbow when he reflexively stuck out his left arm as he toppled down on the pavement, your grandpaa could have been seriously hurt or even killed if he had been hit by the speeding taxi. Your grandmaa and grandpaa often rode in trains during the twelve years that they lived in Bolivia. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were on trains that derailed. The train derailments that happened when your grandmaa and grandpaa were on trains that derailed never caused physical injury; the derailments just caused at times long delays while railroad workers worked at getting the cars that went off railroad tracks back on the tracks. Your grandmaa and grandpaa saw one time some badly mangled boxcars that had derailed and had tumbled down a steep embankment resulting in the deaths of some of the guys and gals who had been traveling in the boxcars. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that whenever they are traveling that they are always a split second away from a calamity or mishap that . . .
Saul was one decision away from being killed. 1 Samuel 26 recounts an incident where Saul was very close to finding David. It had become Saul’s jealous passion to kill David. When some dudes from the Ziphite people group of guys and gals told Saul – who was the first king to rule over the Israelite people group guys and gals, that David was hiding out on the hill of Hakilah, Saul took his 3,000 man army and headed to the desert of Ziph – which was a very hot, arid region that was located southeast of the town of Hebron, to find and kill David. When Saul arrived at the hill of Hakilah, he set up camp and went to sleep. When David was informed by one of his scouts that Saul had arrived at the hill of Hakilah, he decided to see if could spot Saul inside his campsite. Abishai – who was one of David’s trusted guys, agreed to go with David to see if they could spot Saul. When David got to Saul’s campsite, he found everyone sleeping. When David and Abishai located Saul, Abishai thought it was the perfect moment to put an end to Saul which would put an end to David being constantly pursued by a demented guy. David would not let Abishai kill Saul. David instead took Saul’s spear – which Saul had stuck into the ground near his head, and Saul’s water jug – which Saul had placed on the ground near his head. When David and Abishai got to the outside of Saul’s campsite, David yelled to Saul’s army and specifically to Abner – who was Saul’s right hand guy, about their sorry ineptness of guarding their king. When Saul saw that David was holding his spear and water jug, Saul became all kinds of repentant. Saul confessed to David that his insane behavior had been unwise, ungodly and . . . it seemed to resonate with Saul when David referred to Saul as being a flea who was foolishly hunting for him to kill him – and then comparing himself to a partridge which Saul may have hunted in the mountains. Saul would head back to his palace after he falsely promised David that he would stop trying to murder him. A confession can come quite easily when a guy, gal or kid is caught red-handed while doing something that he or she knows that he or she is not to do. Saul’s confession/repentance was probably real for a moment but . . . your grandpaa believes that true repentance only happens when a genuine confession is made that results in an obvious change in an attitude and action.
Your grandpaa is very thankful that God pulls the ‘strings’ of everything around him. Why do you think that David and Abishai could walk right to the center of a campsite that was being guarded by a 3,000 guy army without waking up any of the guys and getting next to the king? Verse 12 says, “So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, not did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the LORD had put them into a deep sleep.” God – as God the Father, had made sure that not one guy was awake when David and Abishai walked into the campsite where Saul was sound asleep. Your grandpaa can testify from personal experience that God – as God the Father, controls uncoiling wires, taxi charging motorcycles and boxcars that have derailed. Your grandpaa believes that luck is never involved in what happens and does not happen to him. What has God – as God the Father, done for you that confirms that He is in total control of whatever takes place?
1 Samuel 26 (860)